Zelensky wants an immediate ceasefire: TRUE ✅- Putin's claims about Zelensky: FALSE ❌ - being scary does NOT make something true - Putin makes false claims to continue his very slow invasion
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Scared people often
believe Putin when scared
They believe many different things. But this particular debunk is for anyone who is scared by his many false claims about Zelenksy.
You believe this because fear undermines critical thinking
Putin is trying to falsely convince you that Zelensky wants a war with Russia and he wants an even larger war than the one that is going on already.
That would be an insane thing for a leader of Ukraine to want
Every day Ukrainian cities are bombed by Russia and Ukrainians spend hours in air raid shelters waiting for the all clear to go back to ordinary life again
Russia’s main objective is the Ukrainian power stations and Ukrainians spend their cold winters often without the electricity they use to heat their homes for hours on end, using diesel generators instead
A few Ukrainian civilians are killed every week by the bombs
Why would Zelensky want that? He doesn’t.
So what is the truth here? Let’s dig into Putin’s many false claims about Zelensky and the truth for each one.
These claims mostly originate from Putin directly, or from Russian propaganda / disinformation accounts - but they then get amplified and spread by others who also embellish on them and often don’t know where they came from
So - sometimes it is obvious but you may not always know they came from Russia originally.
Video for this blog post
Or as full page without navigation:
https://ddebunked.org/y?PDt_4ZNMEAo
See also my:
Contents
False claim ❌: - that Zelensky would give Ukrainian cities to Putin if he was interested in peace - Truth ✅: - NOBODY in Ukraine can give Ukrainian cities to another country without a referendum and Zelensky wants an unconditional immediate ceasefire
Putin claims
that Zelensky not giving cities to Putin is proof that Zelensky wants the war to continue
The reality is much simpler.
Zelensky wants an immediate unconditional ceasefire - this is something he can do as president
Zelensky CAN’T give Ukrainian cities to Putin - NOBODY in Ukraine has the ability to give Ukrainian cities to another country
Zelensky can’t give Kromatorsk to Putin just as a UK prime minister couldn’t give Blackpool to another country - not even to, say, Ireland - he doesn’t have that authority.
In both cases it needs a referendum. The Ukrainian constitution doens’t permit a referendum in war time. And just as the British people wouldn’t give Blackpool to Ireland in a referendum, the Ukrainian people wouldn’t give Kromatorsk to Russia.
There is a majority in favour of a ceasefire, but not in favour of giving away cities.
See my:
When scared you may tell me lots of false things that Putin says about Zelensky to build up a false picture of Zelensky as not a legitimate leader
NOT because you are far right. NOT because you are pro Putin. JUST because you are scared of these stories.
False claim ❌: - that Zelensky is a Nazi- Truth ✅: Zelensky is a jew and three of his grandfather’s brothers were killed in the holocaust
Putin claims
that Zelensky is a Nazi
he is in fact a Jew and three of his grandfather’s brothers were victims of the holocaust.
https://www.president.gov.ua/en/news/volodimir-zelenskij-rozpoviv-istoriyu-svoyeyi-rodini-pid-cha-59437
So no he is not a nazi in any way whatsoever
False claim ❌: - Zelensky is not the legitimate leader of Ukraine - Truth ✅: Zelensky was elected in a landslide and even the opposition Russian party led by Buyko which got some districts in the first round condemns Putin’s invasion of Ukraine
That Zelensky is not the legitimate leader of Ukraine
Zelensky was elected by a landslide and that includes pro Russian regions of Ukraine voted for him because he is Russian speaking as his first language and was a very popular comedian
Zelensky got a majority in nearly all the electoral districts even in the first round.
Screenshot:
Let’s look a little more recent Presidential elections 2019 first round “Pro Russian” candidate Boyko takes 11%, in the second round all of those light blue districts choose Zelensky “Pro Russian” candidate Boyko today condemns Russia’s invasion and advocates for EU membership
On Twitter
In the second round Boyko dropped out leaving a landslide victory for Zelensky with a few districts in the far west supporting the former president Poroshenko
. File:Результати Виборів Президента України 2019 за округами (другий тур).svg - Wikimedia Commons
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See:
. 2019 Ukrainian presidential election - Wikipedia
So in the first round, the Luhansk, and Donetsk regions and one district each in Karkhiv and Kherson were won by Yuriy Boyko who is in favour of closer relations with Russia.
All the districts in Luhansk, Donetsk, Kharkiv and Kherson switched to Zelensky when Yuriy Boyko dropped out after not getting enough votes to go through to the second round.
However even Boyko was not in favour of an invasion. Boyko condemns Russia’s invasion and advocates for EU membership. He renamed his party as “Opposition Platform - For Life” and says that his members joined the territorial defence against Russia en-masse and said “We are doing everything to help our citizens in this terrible time.”
QUOTE STARTS
Yuriy Boyko, co-chair of the Opposition Platform - For Life faction, said that the Opposition Platform for Life condemns Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and will do everything necessary to help Ukrainian citizens.
“The main task of the HLE Strategic Council is to organize humanitarian assistance to the population in the regions located in the war zone, help refugees and protect Ukraine,” he wrote on Facebook.
Boyko also stressed that “we condemn the aggression of the Russian army against our country.”
“Members of the OP-HL join the territorial defense en masse in order to protect critical infrastructure facilities, civilian housing and fight looters. We help people affected by this aggression, participate in the construction of peaceful corridors, and also provide humanitarian assistance. We are doing everything to help our citizens in this terrible time. We will defend Ukraine!” he said.
[Google translate of:] Бойко: мы осуждаем агрессию российской армии против нашей страны
I go into details here:
BLOG: Russia’s invasion into Ukraine is an illegal war
— very clear case
— to counter infodemic
— NOT started by Ukraine and NOT started by the US
You can read it here:
https://debunkingdoomsday.quora.com/Russia-s-invasion-into-Ukraine-is-an-illegal-war-very-clear-case-to-counter-infodemic
False claim ❌: - that Zelensky is no longer legitimate because Ukraine hasn’t held elections in the war - Truth ✅: The Ukrainian constitution says he has to continue as leader in a war - if he dies or resigns nobody else can be elected in his place and the leader of parliament would continue instead with reduced powers
That Zelensky is no longer legitimate because he hasn’t had elections
It’s Ukrainian justices that interpret the Ukrainian constitution not Putin and the constitution is very clear, elections can’t be held during a war - there’s a clause in the constitution saying this - the current leader and parliament continue and Zelensky remains the legitimate leader of Ukraine
False claim ❌: - Zelensky is only interested in money and earns billions from the war - Truth ✅: Zelensky earned his $20 million fortune as a comedian BEFORE THE WAR - campaigned to end corruption - and put even the oligarch who funded his campaign in prison with his wealth confiscated for the war when he discovered he also was corrupt
That Zelensky is only interested in money
Zelensky earned far more as comedian and had a salary drop as president - he is a multi-millionnaire as a result of his work as a comedian before he was president and earns nothing from the funding for Ukraine.
TEXT ON GRAPHIC: Zelensky plays fictional history teacher
who rants about corruption in Ukrainian presidential elections
fictionally elected president after a student films his rant
Zelensky went on to become a real president
elected in a landslide victory
his aim was to end corruption
even the oligarch who funded his election campaign turned out to be corrupt and with Zelensky’s support is now in prison with his wealth confiscated for the war
TRANSCRIPT: It’s always the lesser of two assholes and it’s been this way for 25 years.
He isn’t particularly wealthy as comedians go. His fortune of $20 million would make him the fourth most wealth comedian in the UK if he was a UK comedian.
False claim ❌: - that Russia offered a peace treaty in 2022 and Boris Johnson ordered Ukraine to refuse it - Truth✅: Boris Johnson just said not to trust Putin and the negotiations continued for 6 more days - the treaty failed because Russia required Ukraine to grant it veto power on any military supplies to help Ukraine if it invaded Ukraine again
That the Russians offered peace in 2022 and Ukraine refused because Boris Johnson told them to keep fighting
First this was AFTER Russia had invaded Ukraine and lost the battle of Kyiv. Putin got interested in peace when he lost that battle but only momentarily.
Boris Johnson visited Ukraine on 9th April 2022. He did tell Zelensky not to trust Putin - but Zelensky already knew that so he wasn’t telling him anything new.
https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/pms-remarks-during-joint-clip-with-president-zelenskyy-9-april-2022
Boris Johnson did NOT stop the peace negotiations.
The discussions with the Russian negotiators continued for another 6 days which shows that they didn’t stop because of Boris Johnson.
This is what Zelensky says about what happened in an interview with the Guardian:
Zelensky never gave his approval to agree to any of the ultimatums that Putin gave to the Ukrainian delegation in Turkey
so the idea that Boris Johnson persuaded him out of signing an agreement can’t be true, because the negotiations never got to the point where the Russians had something that Zelensky could sign
“Volodymyr Zelenskyy has rubbished claims that Boris Johnson scuppered a possible peace deal between Ukraine and Russia in spring 2022, calling them “illogical” in an interview with the Guardian.
“There were several approaches with ultimatums and I never gave my approval for it,” said Zelenskyy of Russian demands for ending its full-scale invasion.
Johnson had nothing to do with his decision, said Zelenskyy, directly addressing the claims for the first time: “It doesn’t fit with logic; what was he supposed to be talking us out of?”
He continues:
If the Russians had offered a peace treaty at the height of the battle of Kyiv when things were really difficult for Ukraine and it wasn’t safe for Zelensky to be out of doors in Kyiv then you could imagine the story making sense, that Boris Johnson told Zelensky to stick with it and not surrender to Russian blackmail
But this was AFTER Ukraine had won a big victory and forced Russia to withdraw from their entire main offensive focused on Kyiv
Boris Johnson and Zelensky were walking around Kyiv together (there’s video of this) - the Ukrainians were not under any direct military pressure in Kyiv so the idea of Boris Johnson needing to support Zelensky to say no to the proposed treaty makes no sense
Zelenskyy said the timing of Johnson’s visit meant that it made no sense to claim he had put pressure on Ukraine to fight on.
“You could imagine, it could be logical, that at the point when it was really difficult for us we would have been ready to agree to whatever. They are blackmailing us, Johnson comes and says” ‘We’re with you, stick with it, don’t give in to Russia’. You could imagine that somehow,” said Zelenskyy.
But by the time Johnson arrived, he said, the Russians had already been pushed away from Kyiv: “When Johnson came, we were walking around Kyiv together. We had already kicked them out of [the] area. So there is no logic to the idea that he could have pressured me. Pressured me for what?”
The context here is that:
Ukraine had just won a big battle in Kyiv and the Russians were on the back foot rapidly retreating as the Ukrainians following close behind.
The Ukrainian people had just discovered the atrocities in Bucha which made any peace treaty with Russia for a while almost impossible
[Putin has never apologized for the Bucha atrocities or did anything to discipline the soldiers indeed he awarded the commander of the operation who oversaw the atrocities the title of Hero of the Russian Federation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azatbek_Omurbekov]
The reason they stopped is because the Russian negotiators added a clause to the peace agreement
New York Times got access to the original documents of the time and the final revision of the treaty asked the Ukrainians to agree to a condition that:
If Russia breaks the treaty and invades Ukraine again
Russia has veto power over any supplies of weapons to Ukraine by other countries to help it defend itself.
If Russia broke the ceasefire agreement, it would of course veto any Ukrainian request to Russia to let its allies supply it with what it needed to defend itself.
So they couldn’t sign such an agreement. It was essentially a surrender clause.
QUOTE STARTS
On April 15, five days after Mr. Abramovich told the Ukrainians about his meeting with Mr. Putin, the Russian negotiators sent a 17-page draft treaty to their president’s desk.
...
To the Ukrainians’ dismay, there was a crucial departure from what Ukrainian negotiators said was discussed in Istanbul. Russia inserted a clause saying that all guarantor states, including Russia, had to approve the response if Ukraine were attacked. In effect, Moscow could invade Ukraine again and then veto any military intervention on Ukraine’s behalf — a seemingly absurd condition that Kyiv quickly identified as a dealbreaker.
Russia tried to secure a veto on Ukraine’s security guarantees by inserting a clause requiring unanimous consent.
“The Guarantor States and Ukraine agree that in the event of an armed attack on Ukraine, each of the Guarantor States … on the basis of a decision agreed upon by all Guarantor States, will provide … assistance to Ukraine, as a permanently neutral state under attack…”
With that change, a member of the Ukrainian negotiating team said, “we had no interest in continuing the talks.”
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/06/15/world/europe/ukraine-russia-ceasefire-deal.html
That extra clause was added on 15th April, 6 days after Boris Johnson’s visit.
So they did NOT stop the talks because of Boris Johnson’s visit they stopped the talks because Russia added this clause which required Ukraine to get permission from Russia before it could ask for help to defend itself if Russia invaded it again after signing the peace treaty.
In short, Zelensky is the legitimate leader of Ukraine. He has Russian as his first language, Ukrainian as his second language. He has always wanted peace with Russia.
How this affects some scared people - they believe Putin’s false claims because they are scary because this undermines their ability for critical thinking - not because they are political
The people we help are often politically naive or uninterested in politics.
That makes them ESPECIALLY VULNERABLE because they have no background to assess the false claims they read on the internet or that mainstream media tells them.
You likely need an internet break to get over this.
Russia is NOT going to attack NATO, see:
Why we are not at risk of a world war - moving in the other direction - more peace and stability in the larger picture and Ukraine and events in the Middle East are local conflicts
We have done lots to prevent a third world war, that's why the UN was set up and then the big security coalitions like NATO which is defensive not retaliatory. And almost the entire southern hemisphere is a nuclear weapons free zone and everyone agrees that a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought - with many precautions now to prevent accid…
Why Putin will never use nukes
It NEVER makes sense for Russia to use nukes EVER.
Putin won't use nukes: would damage his regime - risk averse - only invaded Ukraine because sure (mistakenly) he'd win in 2 weeks - if there was a risk as in the Cold War we'd all know about fallout
For those who worry about world war - hopefully this fact check will help.
And this explains why we do NOT risk a world war at all from any of these news stories.
Why we do NOT risk a world war from: Ukraine, the Middle East, China, North Korea, or anywhere else in the world - next to impossible - and longer term are headed for a future without any war
For a first overview look at the graphics, read the bullet points summary, and read the section titles in the contents list - then dive into more detail in any section of interest. If you are on the laptop you can also navigate to any section by clicking on the column of horizontal dashes you see to the left of this page.
CONTACT ME VIA ddebunked.org OR EMAIL
You can Direct Message me on Substack - but I check this rarely. Better, email me at support@robertinventor.com
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Please do NOT Direct Message me on Facebook any more unless you are already in contact with me.
Sadly Facebook’s algorithm has misidentified my fact-checks as spam. Any human would immediately recognize this as a mistake but recently Facebook changed its appeal process to algorithms all the way up.
So there is no way to appeal. That is why I had to leave Facebook and stop running the group that I had been running for a decade to help scared people and start up this new forum. Stevie-Lee McCarthy is running my old Facebook group instead.
Luckily Facebook didn’t block my access to the people I alread help via private messaging on Facebook but it has stopped me from accepting new contacts or making new contacts. I don’t know if this is permanent but it’s lasted for a month so far. There seems no way to appeal at present.
Because Facebook doesn’t want to alert spammers to methods they cna use to evade detection, its algorithms don’t tell suspected spammers even that they have been blocked in this way and they don’t say why they are blocked or how long the block will last. The accept button just no longer works.
But you can contact me easily at our new forum which is one I built myself using the Flarum free open source software. It is purpose designed for our voluntary fact checking.
https://ddebunked.org
It’s best to use private discussions rather than chat for this:
FOR MORE HELP
To find a debunk see: List of articles in my Debunking Doomsday blog to date See also my Short debunks
Scared and want a story debunked? Post to our Facebook group. Please look over the group rules before posting or commenting as they help the group to run smoothly
Facebook group Doomsday Debunked
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SEARCH LIST OF DEBUNKS
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CLICK HERE TO SEARCH: List of articles in my Debunking Doomsday blog to date
NEW SHORT DEBUNKS
I do many more fact checks and debunks on our Facebook group than I could ever write up as blog posts. They are shorter and less polished but there is a good chance you may find a short debunk for some recent concern.
I often write them up as “short debunks”
See Latest short debunks for new short debunks
I also tweet the debunks and short debunks to my Blue Sky page here:
I do the short debunks more often but they are less polished - they are copies of my longer replies to scared people in the Facebook group.
I go through phases when I do lots of short debunks. Recently, I’ve taken to converting comments in the group into posts in the group that resemble short debunks and most of those haven’t yet been copied over to the wiki.
TIPS FOR DEALING WITH DOOMSDAY FEARS
If suicidal or helping someone suicidal see my:
BLOG: Supporting someone who is suicidal
If you have got scared by any of this, health professionals can help. Many of those affected do get help and find it makes a big difference.
They can’t do fact-checking, don’t expect that of them. But they can do a huge amount to help with the panic, anxiety, maladaptive responses to fear and so on.
Also do remember that therapy is not like physical medicine. The only way a therapist can diagnose or indeed treat you is by talking to you and listening to you. If this dialogue isn’t working for whatever reason, do remember you can always ask to change to another therapist and it doesn’t reflect badly on your current therapist to do this.
Also check out my Seven tips for dealing with doomsday fears based on things that help those scared, including a section about ways that health professionals can help you.
I know that sadly many of the people we help can’t access therapy for one reason or another - usually long waiting lists or the costs.
There is much you can do to help yourself. As well as those seven tips, see my:
BLOG: Breathe in and out slowly and deeply and other ways to calm a panic attack
BLOG: Tips from CBT
— might help some of you to deal with doomsday anxieties
PLEASE DON’T COMMENT HERE WITH POTENTIALLY SCARY QUESTIONS ABOUT OTHER TOPICS - INSTEAD JOIN OUR NEW FORUM ddebunked.org
PLEASE DON’T COMMENT ON THIS POST WITH POTENTIALLY SCARY QUESTIONS ABOUT ANY OTHER TOPIC:
INSTEAD PLEASE COMMENT IN OUR NEW FORUM HERE:
It’s just a forum not social media. No age verification. Set up by myself with free open source software Flarum.
For details see my:
Welcome to our own easy to use new discussion forum at ddebunked.org - voluntary fact checkers helping you if scared of many things - single click to join from Google, X or FB or join via email
We recently opened up our new dedicated Doomsday Debunked discussion forum just for voluntary fact checking for easily scared people. ddebunked.org You are all welcome to join us there.
If you have any issues joining it do let me know.
The reason is I often can’t respond to comments for some time. The unanswered comment can scare people who come to this post for help on something else
Also even an answered comment may scare them because they see the comment before my reply.
It is absolutely fine to digress and go off topic in conversations here.
This is specifically about anything that might scare people on a different topic.
PLEASE DON’T TELL A SCARED PERSON THAT THE THING THEY ARE SCARED OF IS TRUE WITHOUT A VERY RELIABLE SOURCE OR IF YOU ARE A VERY RELIABLE SOURCE YOURSELF - AND RESPOND WITH CARE
This is not like a typical post on substack. It is specifically to help people who are very scared with voluntary fact checking. Please no politically motivated exaggerations here. And please be careful, be aware of the context.
We have a rule in the Facebook group and it is the same here.
If you are scared and need help it is absolutely fine to comment about anything to do with the topic of the post that scares you.
But if you are not scared or don’t want help with my voluntary fact checking please don’t comment with any scary material.
If you respond to scared people here please be careful with your sources. Don’t tell them that something they are scared of is true without excellent reliable sources, or if you are a reliable source yourself.
It also matters a lot exactly HOW you respond. E.g. if someone is in an area with a potential for earthquakes there’s a big difference between a reply that talks about the largest earthquake that’s possible there even when based on reliable sources, and says nothing about how to protect themselves and the same reply with a summary and link to measures to take to protect yourself in an earthquake.
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INSTEAD PLEASE COMMENT IN OUR NEW FORUM HERE WITH ANY NEW POTENTIALLY SCARY QUESTIONS YOU WANT DEBUNKED:
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There are many other voluntary fact checkers there, not just me.
It’s just a forum not social media. No age verification. Set up by myself with free open source software Flarum.
For details see my:
https://robertinventor.substack.com/p/our-own-new-discussion-forum-for
If you have any issues joining it do let me know.
The reason I ask you not to ask about other potentialoly scary topics here is that I often can’t respond to comments for some time. The unanswered comment can scare people who come to this post for help on something else
Also even an answered comment may scare them because they see the comment before my reply.
It is absolutely fine to digress and go off topic in conversations here.
This is specifically about anything that might scare people on a different topic.